


Swish and Flick

by SomeSleepySloth



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25952095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeSleepySloth/pseuds/SomeSleepySloth
Summary: 5 Times Alec did it for someone, and 1 Time someone did it for Alec
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 16
Kudos: 99





	Swish and Flick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lalelilolu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalelilolu/gifts).



**1\. Maryse** \- 

Before Shadowhunter training began formally for Alec, he would spend most of his time at home. And one day while reading his book, he spied his mom out of the corner of his eye at the dining room table. She had a few small glass bottles in front of her and her hand was holding a...tiny brush? Moving in a rhythmic fashion, swishing back and forth, it seemed so soothing. 

Alec had never seen it before; he pushed his book aside, got down from the sofa and padded towards his mother to catch a closer glimpse. “Mom, what are you doing? Where is the colour coming from?” he asked curiously.

“Alec, isn’t it your reading time now?” Maryse had not seen her son approaching and nearly jumped in surprise when she heard him speak.

“Yes Mom, but I have finished my reading for today. And tomorrow as well. Please Mom, I just want to see what you are doing” Mayrse relents at his puppy eyes. She knows that Alec would make a fine Shadowhunter one day, and for that he had to undergo a strict training regime. But there were some days where she missed her baby boy, so she relented, and patted the seat beside her, helping Alec climb up onto it. 

“Now watch Alec, this is nail polish, and I am painting my fingernails with it. You move the brush attached to the bottle cap up and down, up and down slowly” she demonstrated the movement to her son, who is watching intently.

“Wow Mom, that looks so cool! Can I try please please please?” he pleaded. “Of course,” Maryse said warmly, handing the brush over to her son. Maryse does end up getting more paint on her finger, than the actual nail, but in that moment, seeing the sheer joy on Alec’s face, well what’s a bit more nail polish really?

**2** **.Izzy** \- 

“Izzy, you know better than to sneak into Mom and Dad’s room” Alec admonished his little sister sternly. Or at least as stern as he could be when confronted with Izzy’s teary face. “Ah Izzy, I didn’t mean to make you cry. But you know that their room is out of bounds. We could be in very big trouble if they catch us in there!” 

“But..but...I wanna make my fingernails rainbow too” Izzy blubbered, with tears running down her chubby cheeks. Wiping those tears away with his sleeve, Alec bent down to be eye level with his sister, “A rainbow?” he queried. 

“Yeah huh, mom has pretty nails, I wanna have pretty nails too, big bro!” Izzy seems to have calmed down now, and it looks like a potential temper tantrum has been averted. _Thank goodness._

Pretty nails...and it clicks in Alec’s head suddenly. He remembers sitting at the dining room table, spending the afternoon with his mother peacefully, painting her nails for her. Ever since training had begun, these quiet moments with his family, needless to say his parents, have been scarce. And so that memory is one of Alec’s most cherished memories to this day. 

“That is nail polish Izzy,” he explained in a gentle voice, “Look, I have some of my allowance saved up, I will get a bottle for you the next time we go out okay?” Alec had earmarked that allowance that he had saved up for a new book that he had had his eye on for over a year. 

Later, seeing Izzy flash that bright smile of hers, legs swinging happily as she sat at the coffee table, as Alec patiently painted her nails for her, _well_ , that was worth a thousand books in Alec’s mind. 

And when Izzy jump tackled him, clutching her arms around him tightly like a koala, as a thank you hug? _Yeah, definitely worth it,_ Alec thinks.

**3\. Clary-**

It was his fault. How could he have let this happen. He had just looked away for a second. _A second!_ He had been trying to spot Jace’s blond hair through the mess, he had to make sure his Parabatai was fine, after hearing Jace’s exclamation of surprise. The bond was fine, which probably meant that Jace was alright as well, but Alec wanted to verify that visually. And so he had turned away for one second. Just one second. But that was all it took for the demon’s tentacle to lash out, sending Clary, whom he was meant to be protecting, crashing straight into the brick wall behind. 

And now here Alec was, hovering awkwardly over Clary in the medical room, while she stared straight at him, as if she was trying to stare into his soul. “Uhm. I would like to uhh... apologise for what happened uhm...just now,” Alec stammered his way through his apology. “Is your arm alright? I saw that your landing was uhh...awkward…if there is anything that I could do for you, please let me know…” he forged on with his apology, trailing off towards the end. 

Clary could see the remorse painted all over Alec’s face, as he shifted nervously; she knew he was genuinely apologetic about it, and was probably wracked with guilt about it. That didn’t mean she could resist poking fun at him after the way he had treated her initially. “These things happen Alec, it’s fine. But if you’d like to make it up to me, I know just the thing!” Clary wiggled her fingers at him, or at least as much as she could in her cast. “Paint my nails! I was going to paint them this week, but with my cast, well…”

“Paint your nails?” Alec parroted back slowly, as if he could not believe what he had just heard. 

“Yeah, my nails, I need them to look good!” 

“Right yes, okay, I will go get the nail polish from your room then, you just...stay here. I will be right back!” Alec ordered, as he dashed out of the ward. 

Catching sight of Alec’s furrowed brows as he painstakingly brushes each finger nail with nail polish, Clary thinks to herself, _yeah, they might not be friends now, but they will be fine._

**4\. Max-**

Alec was striding down the corridor, heading towards the briefing room when something crashed into his legs. Peering down, he saw his baby brother Max, with his face buried into Alec’s knees, clutching them fiercely. He flicked his eyes to the clock, the meeting was starting in five minutes, and his presence was necessary. But as Max’s loud sobs reached his ears, _yeah, the meeting can wait_ , Alec thought to himself. 

He reached down and tried to get Max to release his tight grip of Alec’s knees, to no avail. Switching directions, he stroked his hand down Max’s head, smoothing the ruffled strands, in an attempt to comfort him. “Come now Max, you know what Mother and Father would say if word reached them that their son was caught bawling in the corridors of the Institute.” 

At that, Max’s sobs begin to subside. Alec took this opportunity to free his aching kneecaps from Max’s hands, and bent down to lift his brother up. “Now Max, do you want to tell your big brother why you are so upset?” he cajoled, jostling Max in his grip slightly as he turned to head back in the direction of his own room. 

“The other boys were being mean to me” Max replied through his sniffles. “I just asked Alice how she got her pretty nails. And...and Patrick overheard and told...and he told the other boys and they all started calling me mean names.”At that, Max’s waterworks started again. 

Cursing the other children under his breath for their harsh treatment of Max, Alec hugged his brother tighter. He put Max down on his bed as they crossed the threshold of his room. He knelt down to be on eye level with his brother, brushing his tears away with his thumb. “Do not take the words of those bullies to heart Max, if you want pretty nails, then you shall have pretty nails. I for one, know Izzy has a wide collection of nail polish bottles in her room, you can have any colour your heart desires. So what colour do you want, baby brother?” 

Hearing that, Max’s face brightened immediately. “Any colour? Really?” 

“Yes, any colour you would like!” Alec confirmed.

“I want blue please Alec” Max decided, with a firm nod of his head. 

As Alec caught a glimpse of Max’s look of wonder at his now blue fingernails, he realised he would give anything in this world just to protect his innocent baby brother from the harsh words of this cruel world. And he wished that he could solve any problems his baby brother would face in the future this easily too…

**5\. Magnus-**

“Magnus!” Alec exclaimed in shock, dashing towards the door that Magnus had just staggered through. “What happened to you?” 

Magnus brushed right past Alec’s open arms, and collapsed face first onto the sofa. Alec crossed the room to join Magnus by the sofa, sweeping his eyes across Magnus’ figure frantically, trying to assess the extent of his injury. 

“I’m fine Alexander” Magnus says weakly, waving a dismissive hand in Alec’s direction. 

“Really, you call this alright Magnus? You look far from alright! What on earth happened?” Alec could not help but let the anxiousness creep into his reply. “Are you injured? You look fine on the outside, but do you have any internal injuries?” 

“Darling Alexander, I appreciate your concern, but please do sit down and stop hovering, all of that is giving me a headache.” Magnus groaned. “I just overexerted myself trying to contain that damned demon at the bookstore. Didn’t even have enough magic to open a portal home, had to hail a cab. The taxi driver tried sending me to the hospital, I ended up having to lie to him that my boyfriend was a doctor who could give me the medical attention I needed.” He pauses to take a breath before continuing to reassure Alec. “Anyway, it is just a simple case of a depletion of my magical core, I will be fine in a few hours, Alexander” 

Alec squinted suspiciously at that line, well, he did not know enough about warlock magic to determine if Magnus was telling a white lie to reassure him. He made a mental note to read up more on warlock magic later, just in case. 

Exhaling in relief, he allowed himself to sit down on the sofa beside his boyfriend, lifting Magnus’ weary head to rest on his lap, as he ran his fingers through Magnus’ hair, tousling it in the process. Both to reassure himself, and to soothe Magnus. 

“Well, if you are certain that you are fine…” he asked hesitantly, “Is there anything that I can do to make you comfortable while you recover?” 

At that, Magnus opened his eyes, which now had a mischievous glint in them. “I could do with a fresh coat of nail polish” he replied, thrusting his hand in Alec’s face, complete with a pout on his beautiful face. A stronger man might have been able to resist Magnus’ pout, but not Alec. 

“Fine fine” Alec agreed with faked reluctance. He gently cradled Magnus’ head in his hands as he rose, making sure to put a soft cushion below to replace his lap. He brushed a kiss on his forehead tenderly before he left to hunt down a bottle of nail polish. 

As Magnus looked down at his boyfriend who was sitting Indian-style on the plush rug, holding his hand in a gentle grip as he painted each fingernail with a look of intense concentration on his dashing face, he wondered, _is it too early to say I love you?_

**1\. Max and Rafe** \- 

“Dad dad dad!! Look what I found!! Where are you? I want to show it to you!” Max exclaimed from somewhere inside the house, thundering footsteps indicating that Alec would soon find out whatever it was that Max had found. 

“I’m in the kitchen. And Max, you know the rules, no running inside the house!” he called out in a gently admonishing tone. The pounding on the floor ceased instantly and Alec waited patiently in the kitchen for his son to appear. 

As Max rounded the corner, Alec caught sight of a familiar glass bottle clutched in his son’s chubby fingers. _Ah, he must have been raiding Magnus’ dresser again._ Max plonked the bottle down on the kitchen counter with far too much enthusiasm and it landed with a loud clatter. “Remember Max, we have to be gentle with things” he chided his son. 

Max nodded his head in understanding, before piping up with a question “So Dad, what is this? The blue inside looks so nice! It is shiny! And sparkly! I like it! Can I drink it?” 

“No honey, this,” he gestured towards the bottle, “is nail polish. It goes onto your fingernails. This is your Papa’s. I’m sure you have seen his nails, they are always in a different colour every two days.” 

“Yes yes, I remember” Max nodded his head excitedly, “can I have shiny nails like Papa too, Dad?” _Ah, Max is truly his Papa’s son_. 

“Of course you can,” he replied with a twinkle in his eyes, ruffling Max’s hair in a teasing manner. Max cheered loudly, and the commotion drew Rafe to the kitchen as well; he was curious what his brother was so excited about. 

As Alec patiently swishes the nail polish brush up and down in a rhythmic motion, he feels as if his heart might just burst with how much love he had for his sons, as both Rafe and Max look on in amazement at the nail polishing process. 

And then his heart does indeed burst, when at the end of it all, Max piped up in that adorably squeaky voice of his “Dad, what about you, don’t you want pretty nails too?” Alec does indeed end up with more nail polish around his finger than on his fingernails. But in that moment, seeing the sheer joy on his sons’ faces, well what’s a bit more nail polish really? 


End file.
